I Got This

by Laurie Hernandez

  DEDICATION

  For my grandmother Bruny; my parents, Wanda and Anthony; and my siblings, Jelysa and Marcus:

  I couldn’t have asked for a more loving or supportive family. Thank you for always being there, in the trying times as well as in the joyous ones.

  CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  INTRODUCTION

  Chapter 1: FAMILY FIRST

  Chapter 2: THE KARATE KIDS

  Chapter 3: DOING MY LEVEL BEST

  Chapter 4: SWEATY PALMS, PRAYERS, AND PEPPERMINT OIL

  Chapter 5: GO TIME!

  Chapter 6: GETTING OUT OF THE COUNTRY

  Chapter 7: MY BIG BREAK

  Chapter 8: ABRA-CADAVER!

  Chapter 9: BRING IT ON!

  Chapter 10: A FAR CRY FROM OVER

  Chapter 11: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

  Chapter 12: RIO!

  Chapter 13: STRIKING GOLD

  Chapter 14: THE FINAL FIVE

  Chapter 15: ON PARADE

  PHOTO INSERT

  Chapter 16: THE FINAL STRETCH

  Chapter 17: TOUR DE FORCE

  Chapter 18: DANCING ON AIR

  Chapter 19: TRIPLE 10s

  Chapter 20: BEYOND THE MIRROR BALL TROPHY

  YOUR TURN

  LAURIE’S OFFICIAL RECORDS

  GLOSSARY OF GYMNASTICS TERMS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CREDITS

  COPYRIGHT

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

  INTRODUCTION

  ON AUGUST 15, 2016, I WHISPERED SOMETHING TO myself that ended up being heard all around the world. I got this, I said as I touched the balance beam before performing my final routine in the team competition during the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I didn’t expect those three little words to blow up on social media the way that they did—they were simply a reminder to myself that I had practiced so incredibly hard for that moment, that I could do it. I said those words to keep myself calm and focused. I said them to give myself confidence. Even months later they continued to have power for me as I competed for the Mirror Ball Trophy alongside my Dancing with the Stars partner, Val Chmerkovskiy. And I still say them today whenever there’s a big challenge ahead.

  The year 2016 was a magical one for me. So many of my wishes were fulfilled, I almost can’t believe it. I recently got a journal to start committing my memories to paper, and sometimes after completing an entry I have to sit silently for a while and just absorb it all. Thinking about the Olympics still gives me butterflies! My family, my coach, and all my life experiences have taught me to pursue my goals, to never let doubt hold me back, to take the first step . . . and then the next. And that advice has paid off a thousand times over. As you read these pages, I hope you’ll see that I had a dream, and that by dedicating everything I had to it, I was able to achieve it. I believe wonderful things can happen for you, too. Don’t let your fears stop you. There will be setbacks and disappointments—there always are—but there will also be lots of rewards.

  By sharing my story in this book, I want to encourage and dare you to go after your goals. I want to inspire you to do something you never thought was possible. You’ll be amazed at how, by some grace, the path will clear for you. The message I gave myself on that life-changing summer day may have been “I got this,” but the message I hope you hear in every line of this book is “You got this.”

  FAMILY FIRST

  CHAPTER 1

  MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THIS ABOUT ME, BUT the name on my birth certificate is Lauren Zoe Hernandez. I guess a lot of other parents in 2000 gave their daughters the name Lauren, too: there were so many of us in my first gymnastics class, my teacher decided to call me Laurie so we’d know which one of us she was talking to. From there, the nickname just kind of stuck, and now that’s how I’m known. Since then I’ve also earned the nickname “the Human Emoji” because of the animated faces I make during my floor routines. I love the hilarious pictures of me online making the “openmouthed smiley face” and the “blushing face.” There’s also the “flirty face” and the “scream.” But the one people think most resembles me is the “epic grin.” I’m definitely a happy, bubbly person, and I like the fact that it shows on my face!

  A lot of the joy people see in me comes from doing what I’m passionate about, and it also comes from my home life. Before I ever learned the basics of gymnastics—how to cast well on the uneven bars, how to do a handspring on the vault—I learned the importance of being part of a loving family. My dad, Anthony Hernandez, is a court clerk for the New York City Supreme Court, and my mom, Wanda Hernandez, is an elementary school social worker. They’re really adorable. My dad told me that they first met in college and that my mom would study a lot in the library (which doesn’t surprise me) and my dad would always joke around with her. That’s so like him—he’s the comedian in the family, the one who makes us laugh all the time at the dinner table. I guess their relationship just sprouted from there. Since the beginning, communication was important to them, and they’ve made sure it’s important to the rest of the family, too.

  Because my mom grew up in a not-so-good neighborhood in New York City, where she saw a lot of verbal and physical abuse, she and my dad decided that when they raised a family, they wanted to be as far from that kind of influence as possible. As soon as they could, they moved to Old Bridge Township, New Jersey. It’s a friendly community where I’ve lived my entire life. My mom swore to my dad and to herself that we’d never have the type of bad behavior in our home that she was exposed to as a child. She made sure that we grew up with a lot of respect and love. She had witnessed the ugly side of life and wanted to create something better for us. I know that’s why my siblings and I have such an awesome connection.

  Speaking of my siblings . . . my sister, Jelysa, my brother, Marcus, and I all think our parents are the best life coaches ever. They raised the three of us to treat one another with respect, and it’s because of their example that we’re always nice to each other. When we’re walking down the street, everyone thinks it’s unbelievable how calm and how playful we are together. I know it sounds strange, but we never fight, because we understand we’re going to be with each other for the rest of our lives. People say, “Wait, what? You really don’t fight?” And it’s true, we don’t. If we’re upset with each other, we talk it out. You don’t have to fight and ignore each other for days—that’s just not something that we do in our house. And once we settle a disagreement, we leave it behind us. Our parents taught us to respect our siblings first and to always remember to show that we care.

  Jay—that’s what we call Jelysa—is eleven years older than me. She’s more than a big sister, she’s like an extra mom and one of my best friends all rolled into one. She has a master’s degree and is a social worker just like my mother. Even though there’s such a big age gap between us, we’re really close. I know I can tell her anything, and I trust her completely. When I was younger, we used to have sleepovers in her room: I’d crawl into her bed and we’d stay up all night talking. And now that we’re older, it’s funny how we finish each other’s sentences and how we have the same mannerisms. Sometimes it freaks people out. Like one time we were in Starbucks and we ordered cake pops separately, and without even realizing it, we said the same thing in the same exact way. The barista laughed and told us that what we’d said and how we’d said it was so identical, it sounded scripted!

  Marcus is awesome, too. He’s four years older than me and in college now. He’s studying economics and sports management at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He’s a great athlete and ran track at Old Bridge High School and was a middle-distance competitor during his freshman year of college. He participated in the NCAA Division I All-American competition, too, wh
ich is a big deal. I’m always amazed by how he did all that when there was a ton going on in his life. I’ve been able to really concentrate on my gymnastics, whereas he was competing and juggling so much at once: school, family, social responsibilities, track. Even when you’re talented, every sport is hard and requires a lot of your attention. Right now Marcus is focusing on his studies and his work, but he still always makes time for me and is one of my biggest fans. Like, during the Olympics, he got all of Old Bridge tweeting their support for me! He says he’s super proud of me, and I’m just as proud of him.

  Now that I’m on the road touring and training and competing a lot of the time, I miss our family movie nights and the silly things the five of us do when we’re together. I especially miss the way we crank up the music and end up spontaneously dancing when we’re actually supposed to be cleaning the house. . . . Our home is crazy that way. It’s always filled with laughter. Being raised in that loving, joyous environment taught me to be respectful of other people. And seeing my parents’ journey, and all they’ve given to my siblings and me, taught me something I will carry with me for the rest of my life: you can always change your circumstances in life if you put your mind to it.

  THE KARATE KIDS

  CHAPTER 2

  IN ADDITION TO MY BROTHER, MY WHOLE FAMILY is actually pretty athletic. I’ve seen pictures of my dad playing baseball when he was younger; he was a center fielder. My mom was into volleyball and tennis and was in amazing physical condition when she was in the US Army Reserve during the 1980s. It was wild growing up and hearing all her stories about basic training. But my parents’ appreciation for sports and fitness wasn’t the only reason they started taking us to martial arts classes when I was just two and a half: my mom also really wanted her very own Karate Kids! Because she’d grown up in a tough environment, she was determined to teach all of us self-defense.

  Although my mom only enrolled Jelysa and Marcus in the actual classes, she brought me along to the dojo to watch. She even dressed me in my own gi. Whenever my mom tells the story, she says I used to stand behind whichever sensei was teaching that day and copy every move he or she made to a T. When the senseis saw that I could keep up, they began to come over and encourage me to try different moves.

  Once my mother realized just how flexible I was, she decided to enroll me in ballet classes. But at that age, all I wanted to do was dance around, and ballet was a little too serious. They did give out sugar cookies at the end of each session, so at the very least I always made sure I got through the workout—I really wanted those cookies. I must have liked the performance aspect of ballet, though, because my mom tells this story about how I shined in my first recital. We were set to perform “Animal Crackers in My Soup” at a local vocational school whose auditorium could seat about six hundred people. When the curtains parted, all the other kids hung back and some even began crying. But not me! I stepped out, found the spotlight, and did my dance exactly as we’d rehearsed. It was clear that performance was my calling.

  By the time I was five years old, I was ridiculously energetic, walking around the house on my hands and constantly jumping up and down on my bed. That’s when my mother decided to sign me up for acrobatics. I was so excited! But when we showed up for the first class, we found out that nobody else had registered, so the instructors were canceling it. I was devastated: I had really wanted to take that class.

  Then one day I was watching TV, and I saw Shawn Johnson doing flips. I can still remember how graceful and controlled she was—even at that age I could see she was pure magic on the beam. I pointed at the screen and said, “Mom, look! I want to do gymnastics, and I want to go to the Olympics just like her!” Can you believe it? My mom could tell I was serious, so she said, “If this is what you want, I’ll search for a class.” And she did. That’s when we found my very first instructor and signed me up for a forty-five-minute recreational class focused on the basics.

  On the first day, my mom said to the instructor: “I would like my daughter to learn how to do a cartwheel and a split. If she can do that in six weeks, I’ll keep her in.” As you probably guessed, I learned both in less time than that. I loved flipping and watching everyone around me flipping, too. I knew right away that this was my sport. That was the end of dancing and karate lessons—I was hooked on gymnastics. One of my earliest memories of that time, right at the very beginning of my gymnastics journey, was performing in a pretend competition my instructor organized. I remember I was wearing this yellow T-shirt and it was the smallest audience ever. But, no surprise, my whole family was there. Looking at my parents in the bleachers, I kept thinking, Hey, look at what I can do! I was so happy.

  There I was, walking on the beam, holding someone’s hand in this mini pretend competition one minute . . . and then the next thing I know I’m in real competitions. The transition happened like that. Looking back at those early years, I think my mother got more than she ever imagined: Jelysa earned her black belt and became the Karate Kid my mom always wanted; Marcus’s training in track and field guaranteed he had enough speed and stamina to run from trouble if he ever encountered it; and I was constantly in motion, beginning my path to Olympic gold and silver.

  DOING MY LEVEL BEST

  CHAPTER 3

  IN AMERICA, IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN organized gymnastics and compete against other kids at your skill level, there are a few ways you can go about it. One way is to join a league like the AAU, which is a multisport organization for amateur athletes. But if you’re someone like me—someone who’s always dreamed of competing on the world stage—then you definitely want to participate in the USA Gymnastics program. USAG basically trains and selects up-and-coming gymnasts for the Olympics and the World Championships.

  To climb the ranks of the USAG system, you have to complete ten specific training levels. Levels 1–3 teach very basic skills—that’s what I was learning when I was in my introductory class. When you want to move up to the big-girl levels and start to compete, it’s up to your coach to recommend you. I don’t know if my first instructor thought I was talented enough or if she just saw me as a sweet kid eager to take the next step, but after being with her for a while, she told my current coach, Maggie Haney, about me.

  I was seven years old when my parents and I first met Maggie. She was coaching a team of female gymnasts who were all competing at Level 4 and above. By Level 4, you need to learn a specific routine for each event, and you need to do it exactly as it’s supposed to be performed. It’s all about acquiring a particular skill set. Then, to advance from Level 4 to Level 5, you must achieve a certain mobility score. At first, it wasn’t clear if I would fit in with Maggie’s Level 4s: most of the other girls were a year or two older than me. But I was the type of student who picked up new skills quickly! After succeeding at Level 4, I stayed with the same group of girls through Levels 5 and 6. During that time, my mother, who came to see all my events, noticed that my “lines”—meaning the straight lines created by my arms and legs—were improving significantly and that my skills were developing at a more rapid pace than the other girls’. That’s when we questioned whether things were advancing too slowly for me. Maggie had never trained an elite-level athlete before and therefore had no one to compare me to, so she decided it was time to contact USA Gymnastics about their Talent Opportunity Program (TOPs).

  The point of TOPs is to evaluate young female gymnasts’ talents. It’s a combo talent search and educational program for girls between seven and ten, who are evaluated at the state or regional level. Then select athletes are invited to participate in the National TOPs test, where you’re evaluated on physical abilities and some basic gymnastics skills, and you’re graded based on how everyone else your age is performing. The highest-scoring gymnasts are then invited to participate in the National TOPs Training Camp.

  I was only nine when I arrived at TOPs, and I had no idea what to expect. That was the first time I thought, Wow, I’m really progressing. I could see how far I’d come. T
here were all these different tests: there’s a specific rope-climbing exercise you have to do, keeping your legs parallel to the floor. They also have a test where they see how long you can hold a handstand. Then there’s a press-handstand test and a leg-lift test. Finally, to assess your flexibility, you have to do a series of kicks and holds.

  Sure enough, after I completed the program over the course of a few days, we found out I had gotten the number one score among nine-year-olds in the country! Once my TOPs scores proved my potential, training at the TOPs developmental camp was the next logical step. If you rank at the top of your age bracket in the country, you’re invited to go to Karolyi Ranch in Texas. Which meant I was headed for Texas! There, I could continue learning and perfecting my skills. This camp is a rung below the camp you attend when you’re training for the Nationals—which is an elite-level competition—and it shares the ranch with the national training center for the US women’s gymnastics team. It was all very exciting but nerve-racking, too! At the time, the camp was run by Marta Karolyi, who had been the USA National Team coordinator since 2001. Marta is legendary for having helped mold some of the greatest gymnasts in the world. It was a real privilege to be able to go there.

  The camp is on this huge complex in Huntsville, Texas. It has state-of-the-art equipment, a dance room, several different types of gyms, a medical room, a dining hall, and dorm rooms. In the beginning I was training there for five days every two months; later, I would train there for five days every month. Marta brought in experts to give us tips and to help our coaches learn different techniques, too. I’d study new skills and then go home to New Jersey and work on them with Maggie at Monmouth Gymnastics Academy until I returned again the next month to show the camp staff my progress. I loved those weeks at the camp, and it was there that I realized I wanted to dedicate myself to gymnastics full-time.